Athletics Nation

Damn you, mystery team who kept us from signing Big Frank!

WTF...

That was a good opportunity. How come we don’t know who signed him?

surfinsushi - April 23, 2008 reply

Damn, I always miss the good games. =(

Gaudin.. WOW… what a surprise (sorry, but I’m not the biggest fan of Gaudin) How long did he pitch for?

surfinsushi - April 23, 2008 reply

7 IP

When Gaudin is in THE ZONE, he’s very, very good. I really like the way Suzuki catches Gaudin. Give chad another chance. He has crazy movement on his fastball. Personally, I think he has the best “stuff” of the entire Starting Pitching staff, especially when he is FITZ (Fearless In The Zone)!

Colorado Fan - April 23, 2008 reply

I don't like

the new server. Boo. I say we cut the new server and sign Big Hurt.

Leopold Bloom - April 23, 2008 reply

Great thread, BBG. I feel like a loser cuz I refreshed the website

about 532 times. A’s win. THE A’s win!

Don't worry. You're not the only one.

I laughed at this every 30 seconds as I refreshed:

I had a meaningful relationship with that picture tonight.

The patience part just cracked me up.

Yeah. You want me to be patient? F*** YOU!

Thank you for holding -

Your comment is important to us. Please stand by for the next available thread.

It was just like dealing with Sprint. No biggie.

cue some Michael Bolton elevator music

That's redundant

Michael Bolton elevator music torture, even more so.

I would rather have a root canal than listen to him.

SERIOUSLY!

Oh crap

they put on the Michael Strapon elevator music by mistake…

oblique - April 23, 2008 reply

There was nothing wrong with A's nation...

until that no-talent ass clown became famous and started winning Grammys.

phastphill - April 23, 2008 reply

I did that about ten times, then tried SBnation.com which was also down.

My first thought was all the conversations I must be missing out on. My second thought was how silly the first thought was.

phastphill - April 23, 2008 reply

ha

I kept refreshing, too. The site actually came up a couple of times, but I was sad that there was never a game thread. I felt like such a dork!

day-to-day - April 23, 2008 reply

I can has AN back plz?

pleeze, i am startin to tawlk dat way at worwk sumtimez

Sry! Not mai falt!

am addicted to teh lolcatz.

ya! an teh r hiringz!!!

keep mike sweeney please!

thank you!

gotgreen - April 23, 2008 reply

Mike Sweeney

tells AN to stuff it.

I’ve have had horrible days at work myself. Stay away from the alcohol tonight, Blez. Once you get started, you’ll never stop. ;-)

Soaker - April 23, 2008 reply

Heezright, hic.

We really need to stop making so many errors, but I’m liking the whole 13-9 thing.

Ummmmm, who is this Davis cat?

Not the signing I was hoping for.

but he's speedy.

exactly what we need

a speedy outfielder to counterbalance the slow as molasses jack “bread” cust.

DyeLongJustice - April 23, 2008 reply

Damn that guy is scary to watch in LF. I was thinking of my

little league teammates over the years wondering if they were going to catch the ball or fall down before having a chance.

Jack looked fine in LF tonight

A damn sight better than Emil in RF.

Booooooooooooooo!!!

A’s win. :-)

HigherPie - April 23, 2008 reply

Being AN-less for a full game

and all the while expecting it be there was a shock to the system. I had pause for self reflection on the attachment…..since the 2004 season, my god.

Seriously.

Takl about co-dependence.

I went to "other" sites to find game threads but couldn't find anything

worthwhile.

I signed up for Elephants in Oakland

but never posted….thinking, I would be a two-timer and found out.

Dude you just said that "out loud" in words. bAnNEd!

Could you come up with a clever psuedonym,

like “al_skaA”?

no it was, Nico-nay-sayer

That's neigh-sayer to ewe

Amazing how this team

just keeps pitching and pitching and pitching. Huston Street only allowed two baserunners, too!

jeepers - April 23, 2008 reply

And we held Jason Kubel to

“missing a game-tying HR by an inch”!

Baseball Tonight

They created a nice highlight package on Baseball Tonight showing the ground balls that Gaudin produced. I thought I would show some love for once, with all the shit that we give ESPN. Myself included.

afansnotes - April 23, 2008 reply

Ok someone has to say it

FIRE BLEZ NOW!!!

We can’t be without AN at game time

3up3dn - April 23, 2008 reply

I disagree.

Small sample set. Since the upgrade to AN3.0 there’ve been too few outages … I think this is simply regression to the mean.

phastphill - April 23, 2008 reply

someone said "we're all going to die" & I thougth we were dead...

then Mike Sweeney went yard & I knew were were dead

drink409 - April 23, 2008 reply

I'm thinking Mike Sweeney is against us signing Frank Thomas

At least that’s what his bat seemed to be saying tonight.

I think Mike is not happy about losing more playing time

Sweeney showed his value going first to third tonight. Thomas could not have done that, or scored as Sweeney did in the other recent game.

Sweeney HR…=he stays!

One won lost won - April 23, 2008 reply

Sweeney looked pretty horrible running though.

His knee is very obviously still an issue.

I’m not sayin we need him to be swiping bags or anything, but he could very well be thrashing his leg even more by running that hard.

Ugh.

For some reason, I had way too many hot dogs.

jeepers - April 23, 2008 reply

ditto that

And WTF: NO KRAUT?!?

I don’t care if it means one fewer scout in Latin America—I WANT MY FREE KRAUT, LEW!

un. acceptable.

How the hell am I supposed to have a big dog if there’s no kraut?

haha

i always bring along condiments in a tupperware when it comes to these dog days

BigTuna - April 23, 2008 reply

see, that's the reverse of my old plan

I always used to grill up some quality dogs at home first, slap ‘em in some boutique buns, wrap ‘em in kitchen towels, and dress ‘em with Lew’s Free Condiments at the park.

Paying for the dogs at the park and bringing condiments in is just WRONG.

a good plan...

but, how did you keep them dogs warm? Cold hotdogs at a ballgame? That’s almost as sacrilegious as warm beer at a ballgame!

FoolshGame22 - April 24, 2008 reply

1. Warm up the oven to 250F; warm up whatever grill/broiler you prefer for the dogs
2. Prep 2-3 good kitchen towels, a big plastic bag (reused or Ziploc), and your carry bag
3. Start grilling the dogs
4. Warm the buns in the oven
5. When the dogs are done, toss ‘em in the warmed buns
6. Wrap the dogs-in-buns all together in the 2-3 kitchen towels
7. Put the bundle in the plastic bag (or if you have one, an insulated bag)
8. Toss the bag o’ dogs in your carry bag

I’ve never had a cold dog at the ballpark, except in extra innings. They’ll usually stay warm through at least the fifth.

oh, and:

Never dress the dogs with condiments at home. That’s a recipe for a cold wiener with soggy buns. And no one wants that.

Just like Mom used to do

We also used to take in homemade burritos, too.

67MARQUEZ - April 24, 2008 reply

haha i had

a tough experience with the ketchup pump exploding on my friend as I was withdrawing the tomato goodness.

its not that bad of a plan though. bringing in premium condiments makes it worthwhile. Of course, when you hotdog costs less than your deli mustard…it can propose a problem

BigTuna - April 24, 2008 reply

first paragraph: euphemism watch?

What was the other message about the 7th inning stretch?

Were hot dogs mentioned?

in the middle of the seventh inning, we all stretched our hot dogs

Good job again, tonight, Chad!

Yay, Chet!!!!

Cindi

P.S. Where was the thread game? I was, like, “um hello!” Does Blizz know about this?

No kidding, he was dominating

If he has that 7th inning in, I dunno, the third inning instead, that’s a CGSO. (At least, one assumes so.)

Of course, it helps when the other team is punto… excuse me, punting one third of their innings.

PaulThomas - April 23, 2008 reply

If you ever leave me again AN, I will find and kill you, I swear to god.

But seriously Blez, THANK YOU. I realize now just how much I love this site and that I couldn’t live without it, not even for one game.

Rocktopus - April 23, 2008 reply

FYI - It was more than just AN...

Looks like all of SBN 2.0 was down. Every MLB, NBA and NFL (made the transition last night/this morning) site I checked served up the same error page, while college/other pages still seemed to show up in their pre-SBN2.0 glory.

calgbear - April 23, 2008 reply

I reluctantly went to Royals Review to confirm.

Closet Royals fan

I love me some Mike Sweeney for one night.

Oh, is that what that "delete" button I have does?

Oops. Sorry.

Billy sure likes collecting...

former Giants’ outfielders not good enough to make that team.

I’d rather have Frank.

Yeah, can't wait to hear the spin on this signing

Our current CFers just get on base too damn much?

Yeah, it was his .056 batting avg.

I see, you’re right, Nico.

The spin is that Buck is probably going to the disabled list

and the only OF left on the 40 man roster is CarGo, who has a hand injury

At least it's not another ex-Royals guy.

Also

Davis can’t hit, but he’s actually an excellent sub, ‘cuz he’ll be a very good pr and plays the Of better than anyone currently on the team.

isn't that why we kept Linden in the minors?

for just such an occurrence?

To make our team, you have to

hit .056, not .656.

I just thought you had to strike out a lot...

obviously, Billy didn't care about one of our OF's

being on the 40-man roster because he DFA’s Saarloos to acquire Davis.

I'm not sure I understand what that means.

it was poorly put...

the decision to acquire Davis was, obviously, not made because Cargon was the only OF on our 40-man roster. Billy could have just as easily DFA’ed Saarloos and put Linden on the 40-man, rather than acquiring Davis.

Oh, right.

Maybe the fact that Linden can’t play center field was a determinig factor? I dunno.

Doesn't Denorfia have wheels?

Doesn’t he play CF?
Linden must really have pissed the front office off.

I have no idea.

I haven’t called Billy to see what the deal is yet.

but, you were talking about Buck (a corner outfielder)...

going on the DL. That was your spin, wasn’t it?

If that's what it is (which seems pretty likely)

Brown and Cust will play the corners, not Davis or Linden, so it would be more of an issue of a backup OFer. Davis isn’t going to be starting regardless.

And to pinch run for Frank....

if that's really the plan...

then, I’m on board with iamawesomer’s plan, below. Because DFAing Saarloos to acquire Davis, when we actually have a corner outfielder (who seems like he can hit) already waiting to be called up from Sacto makes zero sense to me.

Why DFA Saarloos at all?

As far as the Davis move goes, wouldn’t it have made more sense to DL Buck (for the 25-man roster spot) and move Chavez to the 60-day DL (for the 40-man roster spot)? Why rush Buck back when the A’s want to see what Davis can do (especially since Buck wasn’t hitting—he could have gotten his shins 100% and done a short rehab assignment to get his swing back)? And Chavez will be out until at least June anyway, so no loss there.

This move only makes sense to me if the A’s have another move (or more) planned right behind it, and/or they think Saarloos will clear waivers. And honestly, I’d rather have Saarloos in the mop up/long relief/spot starter role than Braden unless Dallas has improved greatly since last season.

andyinfremont - April 23, 2008 reply

yeah, that might have made more sense...

but, I’m assuming Billy and the boys know the respective injury statuses of those guys better than I do. So, I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt on that. But, that may be a mistaken assumption.

FoolshGame22 - April 24, 2008 reply

Yeah, but I kinda was assuming that Denorfia would slide to a corner spot

I dunno, it’s late and I’ve had a bit to drink.

Uh, I don't know that I would agree..

Embree and Street slammed the door in the 8th and 9th

Embree, sure…

I don't care what PaulThomas says...

about how great Street is… He’s not a closer. Maybe a decent setup man, but he just doesn’t have the lights out stuff you need to be a closer. What’s the over/under for Street blown saves this year?

He's only 24 years old on a team that is rebuilding.

I agree that he is not pitching well but he deserves more time IMO.

Foulke: lights out stuff

Soria: lights out stuff
Chad Cordero: lights out stuff

Yes, it’s quite obvious that you can’t be a successful closer without lights out stuff.

Good thing Street was throwing 94 yesterday! Otherwise he might have sucked.

PaulThomas - April 24, 2008 reply

no kidding

trevor hoffman: lights out stuff

flipgatey3 - April 24, 2008 reply

I saw that gratuitous "gloss over" too!

I was so tense during that 9th after the second hit, I forgot all about the “Sir Fu**s It Up” moniker. Of course, without AN prompts, i couldn’t summon that name from the memory depths.

One won lost won - April 23, 2008 reply

He made it interesting

so everybody would have something to watch while finishing their seventh hot dog of the night.

phastphill - April 24, 2008 reply

He gave up one legit hit to Mauer...

He struck out two guys and got two pop ups on horrible swings. Just because Morneau’s ball landed doesn’t mean Street didn’t have him fooled on that swing. It was a horrible swing. Street looked great tonight….the pitch to Mauer ecepted.

OaktownPower - April 24, 2008 reply

Anybody watching the Lakers and Nuggets?

The Nuggets are the new Portland Trailblazers with all their “thuggish” looking/acting players.

truly

that’s why it especially s**CKed to have the Nuggets beat out the Warriors.

One won lost won - April 23, 2008 reply

Iversen is such a little punk.

actually

no he isn’t

flipgatey3 - April 24, 2008 reply

Hey - it takes

more than a few megatattoo guys to equal the jailblazers – a good pit bull story would be a bare minimum.

Hot Cup Joe - April 23, 2008 reply

Or a good nanny story.

Much like AN...

I was asleep during the game. It never fails.

Jennifer - April 23, 2008 reply

AN wasn't asleep.

It was avoiding us.

Oh shit, you know about that one?

oblique - April 23, 2008 reply

I'm no fool.

Sure you are. Don't overestimate yourself.

go away.

I get it

You’re avoiding him, aren’t you?
< /quick study >

oblique - April 24, 2008 reply

BY the way, nice error Emil on that play. Jeepers.

baseballgirl - April 23, 2008 reply

We should expect nothing less in a 2008 A's game.

2 game error streak!!

and two nice first-pitch popups!

Monkey, Monkey, Monkey

Well done. Keeping the EEEEEmil hate alive. Look, “We” all know he shouldn’t be playing vs. RH Pitching. Unfortunately, the Oakland A’s have players (cough…Buck…cough) who have “OWie” shin splints. Do shin splints hurt bad enough that you can’t play on very soft, outfield grass? Is it time leave Emil “I’ve helped signficantly in 25% of our 13 wins” Brown, and start to question Buck’s manhood?

Colorado Fan - April 24, 2008 reply

Points all granted

Emil is what he is, just as Cust is—one doesn’t take pitches, the other does. There’s a certain complementaritiliciousnessosity there.

I proposed this a couple nights ago to a friend

Sign Frank Thomas to DH
Sign Barry Bonds to LF
Move Cust to RF
Pick up Rajai Davis off waivers to cover the entire OF

Looks like part 3 was accomplished and Part 1 was really close. Almost there Billy, lets wrap this up.

iamawesomer - April 23, 2008 reply

If true: you should be crown "The Awesomest One"

because that is a great idea.
Doesn’t matter if Rajai gets on base, BB and FT should be producing the runs.
Just need Rajai to patrol the entire OF.

Forget having wheels, he'd need a jet pack.

OldhamA - April 24, 2008 reply

Asst. General Mgr on Buan show now

but the audio feed is muffled on my end. Anybody translate?

It's not just you

I can hear Buan fine, but it sounds like Forst is mumbling.

day-to-day - April 23, 2008 reply

so i was watching the twins broadcast

and saw a commercial that had a bunch of the twins players singing a twins-centric song to the tune of “joyful joyful,” ending with joe nathan closing it out. i wouldn’t mind hearing the vocal styling of the A’s… hopefully they wouldn’t make as many musical errors as they make on the field… (i’m looking at you, emil)

whiteshoes40 - April 23, 2008 reply

WHAT did Gaudin throw in the 7th to Monroe?

81 mph, broke IN on the right-hander.

Sinker? Dialed down 2 seamer?

OldhamA - April 24, 2008 reply

I honestly don't know

I was at the game, and I’d FSU’ed my way to being seated behind the plate, 1B side, under the overhang; I saw the pitch live, goggled at the action, looked at the radar-gun reading on the scoreboard, then watched the replay on the underhang tv screen. Still couldn’t figure it out.

Ron Gardenhire